The Fifth Gospel(105)
“A long time ago,” I say, “our Church used to have a fifth gospel. The Diatessaron. Its title is Greek for ‘made of four,’ because that’s how it was written. The author wove together the four gospels into one story. And because of that, the Diatessaron has one great weakness. Do you know what it is?”
I can feel Ugo beside me now. We are staring at the pages of the ancient manuscript.
“Its weakness,” I say, “is that the four gospels don’t always agree. Matthew tells us that Jesus did ten mighty deeds. Ten miracles in a row. But Mark says Jesus didn’t do those ten things in a row; Jesus did them at different times, in different places. So which gospel do we believe?”
No boy dares raise his hand.
“I want you to stop and think for yourself,” I say. “I want you to answer this. But I’ll help you get there. Name one other famous Jewish leader who did ten miracles in a row.”
A boy in front—Bruno, who will make a great priest someday—murmurs, “Moses did the ten plagues.”
“Correct. Now, what does Moses have to do with Jesus? Why would the gospel of Matthew change the order of the facts so that Jesus reminds us of Moses?”
There are no takers. They can’t feel it yet, but the momentum is building.
“Then remember,” I say, “that one of Jesus’ ten miracles was to calm a storm at sea. And that his disciples asked, ‘What sort of man is this, who even the winds and sea obey?’ Remind you of anything Moses did?”
“Parting the Red Sea,” says Giorgio, not to be outdone by Bruno.
“Now we’re getting somewhere. Now we’re getting past what Matthew says and asking ourselves why Matthew says it. I’ll give you another clue. Matthew also says that when Jesus was a baby, a king named Herod tried to kill him by slaughtering all the infants in Bethlehem. Now, where have we heard a story like that before? A king murdering all the Jewish babies?”
The connection is starting to form in their minds. As it dawns on them, they find the courage to make eye contact with me.
“Pharaoh did that,” says a new boy, “in the Moses story.”
I nod. “So once again, we have Matthew making Jesus’ life sound like Moses’ life. Does any other gospel agree with Matthew about these things? No. But Matthew wants to teach us something. Think of who Moses was: a special Jewish leader who saw God face-to-face on Mount Sinai and came back down with the Ten Commandments. The man who gave us the tablets of the law.”
With that, the dam breaks. At the same time, two or three boys make the leap. “Moses brought the old law,” one says. “Jesus brought the new law.”
“This is one of the most important things Matthew teaches us about Jesus: that Jesus is the new Moses, the even-greater-than-Moses. When Jesus delivers the new law, where does it happen? Where does Jesus say, ‘Blessed are the meek,’ ‘Blessed are the merciful,’ ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’? Where does he say, ‘Turn the other cheek,’ and ‘Love your enemies,’ and ‘I have come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it’? It all happens in one sermon, which we know as the Sermon on the Mount because Matthew tells us Jesus gave it on a mountain. The same place God gave the tablets of the old law to Moses. No other gospel agrees with Matthew. Luke says Jesus gave that same sermon in a plain. But Matthew had his reasons. Every single one of the gospels has its reasons.
“Which brings us back to the problem we started with. What would you do if you were writing the Diatessaron? If you had to combine all four gospels into one narrative, which gospel version of the story would you choose? Would you say Jesus really performed those ten miracles in a row? Or at different times, in different places? Would you say he delivered his sermon on a mountain or in a plain?”